Paranormal Activity (sorry its long)

First, I have to tell you, then when it comes to horror movies, I am one tough person to impress. Movies about "possession" rarely got a gasp out of me. Movies like The Exorcism of Emily Rose and The Exorcist made me laugh more than they made me cringe.

Second, Anyone who knows me has heard me go on and on about Jason Hawes, Grant Wilson along with Steve and Tango of the TAPS Paranormal Investigation team based out of Warwick, Rhode Island and their very famous show Ghost Hunters on Syfy- (don't get me started on that new name) and know that I looooove that show. One of my old co-workers told me that she was once apart of a paranormal investigation team and me eyes lit up! The idea of collecting evidence to show anything out of the range of what we believe is physically possible- or even as Jason and Grant say, disproving what the mind thinks is out of the ordinary, is crazy, ridiculous, and best of all.... FUN as HELL! (literally?)

I had heard about this movie that looked very Blair-Witch, Open Water, Cloverfield-esk, but had to do with the paranormal- I was intrigued. It made me think, with Discovery Channel coming out with a new show this season called Ghost Lab, and that stupid ass show on A&E about some kid who locks his team up overnight and is way too dramatic for their own good- has Hollywood cashed in on this growing field of horror? I did some more poking around on the internet and looked on youtube.com for some good old fashioned TAPS moments to get me into the mood of my very own investigation, when I found some "evidence" that someone had put together of what appears to be Grant fubbing some evidence to make it seem paranormal- when it obviously was not....

Why do I have this obsession with the paranormal? Do I blame it on the fact that when I was a child, the only movie I ever wanted to watch was GHOST with Patrick Swayze and Whoopi Goldberg before going to bed? I don't really know, but it has become more and more of an overwhelming curiosity...

Unfortunately, the movie Paranormal Activity has not started up in the rinky-dink theatre we have in Salisbury, so my wait would have to be just a bit longer than I had hoped.... until I made plans to go see Kayla in Virginia Beach, and found out the VA Beach theatre (the only one in VA) was ACTUALLY playing it... and my inner girly girl went OHHH MYYYY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I TOTALLY WANT TO SEE THAT.

It took some convincing for Kayla and Tony to go, but once the tickets were bought- that was it! We were done!! (Unless it was any worse than District 9... then I'd just have to leave the theatre disappointed again.)

It started out just as I had expected: introduce the characters as normal and plain joe and jane, a loving couple with the same problems as everybody else but with the whole "I've been a target for paranormal activity since I was 8" thing. The dialogue was unrehearsed, the fights were real, the reactions were perfect. Then the camera was set up in the bedroom, wide angle on the whole bed, and down the hall... the kids next to me kept saying "take your damn top off... I want to see her boobs!" After rolling my eyes and turning my attention to the screen, something happened... my heart started to pound....

ba-boom.

ba-boom.

ba-boom.

time stamp on the bottom of the screen fast forwards an hour or so...

ba-boom.

ba-boom.

ba-boom.

the door creeks slowly as it moves about a foot, and then back to it's full open position.

ba-boom.

ba-boom.

ba-boom.

the screen goes black, and its daylight again. The review the evidence in the morning together, gasp and set it all back up for the next night. It continues for 3-4 weeks, we see the "highlights" of the paranormal goings-on...

By about the 14th night, when the screen went black, the crowd would all hold their breath, some would scream " JUST GET OUT OF THE %^&* HOUSE!" and girls would cover their faces with their fingers wide open to peek out from behind them. People would groan everytime a new night started because we knew something creepy was going to happen.

I'm not going to give any more details of the movie, but let me just say... leaving the movie theatre my throat was sore for my blood curdling scream that instinctively came rushing out of my chest, and the only question that remained was "WAS THE REAL?"

The answer is ....

No. it's not. I looked it up on the movie's website. I'm disappointed as hell,

because that would've been honestly... the scariest, most horrifying night of my life. Or at least it would've been until I set out own my own investigation and possibly met up with the same forces face to face, or ehm... black mass...

So, I don't want to hear it from anyone. "OMG that movie had no credits, it's real! Holy crap it's real! AHHH!

because it's not. & I'm sad. However, congrats to the writer, director, editor Oren Peli and the millions of dollars he will be getting for making this generations best horror flick... ever.